India cannot afford to barter away its sovereignty under external pressure
To Shri Narendra D Modi Prime Minister
Dear Shri Modiji,
It is reported that India, in view of US sanctions, is considering to exit Chabahar Port in Iran by asking India Ports Global Ltd (IPGL), a joint venture between Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) and Kandla Port Trust (KPT), a subsidiary of Sagarmala Finance Corporation Ltd., to divest its holding in the India Ports Global Chabahar Free Zone (IPGCFZ) to an Iranian entity.
If the report is factually correct, the decision to exit Chabahar port even temporarily would not only be imprudent but also indicative of India meekly caving in to increasing US pressure on it to align its foreign policy decisions more and more with US interests.
India has associated itself with Chabahar Port for more than two decades. We have invested more than $120 million on developing Chabahar Port’s Shahid Beheshti Port Terminal in pursuance of a 10-year development and operation contract signed in 2024. In addition, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is scheduled to extend a $250 million credit line to bolster infrastructure connectivity around Chabahar and augment its role as a regional connectivity hub.
The 10-year contract is aimed at strategically augmenting and diversifying value chains for India and Iran. The Iranian port is not only a flagship project of the India-Iran bilateral ties but also a key maritime node in the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), a 7,200 km-long multimodal connectivity project that connects India to Europe through the Caucasus, Iran, Russia and Central Asia. INSTC is projected to reduce transit time between India and Europe by 40% and transit costs by 30%.
Also, this 10-year agreement counters China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in the Indian Ocean region. Developing Chabahar Port reduces India’s dependence on Pakistan’s Gwadar and Karachi ports in the long term, in accessing Afghanistan and Central Asian countries. There is Chinese presence in both Gwadar and Karachi.
As stated in my earlier correspondence with the Cabinet Secretary.
To Shri T V Somanathan Cabinet Secretary Dear Shri Somanathan, I refer to my two earlier letters dated 8-2-2026 & 13-2-2026 in which I have cautioned the government that under no circumstances should…
countercurrents.org
In addition to having historic, cultural ties with Iran, India has had a long association with that country on several fronts. ONGC set up Hydrocarbons India Ltd during early seventies, even prior to the first oil crisis, to develop an oilfield in Iran. The National Iranian Oil Company continues to hold a significant equity share in Chennai Petroleum Corporation. Several of our refineries are designed to use Iranian crudes.
Iran has often shown its willingness to supply gas to India. During the nineties, India held detailed discussions with Iran on transporting gas by an undersea pipeline to the west coast of India. I was closely associated with that project.
As far as Russia is concerned, India’s strategic relations with that country have also been long standing.
It was when Shri K D Malaviya was the Minister in charge of Oil, India took help from the then Soviet Union’s geologists way back around 1957 to formulate a comprehensive strategy for exploration and development of oil and gas in India with a view to minimise dependence on unreliable foreign oil companies. For a long time, India adopted that strategy to develop indigenous hydrocarbon resources, by setting up oil CPSEs such as ONGC and IOC.
India has also made strategic investments in oilfields in Russia.
ONGC’s subsidiary, OVL holds 26% share in Vankor oil field in Russia, in which a consortium of Oil India, IOC, and BPRL also holds 23.9% share. In Sakhalin-1 oil field, OVL holds a 20% stake. An Indian consortium holds 29.9% stake in Taas-Yuryakh field and OVL acquired Imperial Energy having oil fields in Siberia.
From these operations, over $1.4 billion of dividends are due to come to India but are held up unjustly as a result of US sanctions.
One way to settle this overdue amount is by India importing oil from Russia, and it is ironic that even that avenue should be blocked by the US by way of sanctions.
If India were to yield to US pressure and shift oil imports from Russia to the USA and Venezuela, the price differential will cost us an additional $ 35-40 Billions annually.
As pointed out by me time and again, it is not as though the US has stopped importing critical items from Russia. US continues to import Uranium, Titanium and several other items from that country. Similarly, many European countries continue to depend on Siberian gas piped from Russia. It is ironic that the USA should look after its own strategic interests by continuing its dependence on Russia but deny such an opportunity to India, by imposing the so-called “sanctions”, an instrument that violates the letter and the spirit of international law and conventions.
From a public interaction that a senior RSS leader recently had in the USA, considering that the thinking of RSS is closely linked to that of BJP, it looks as though, the leadership of NDA has moved away from the traditional trajectory of a non-aligned foreign policy and started helplessly accepting a situation in which India would compromise its own national interest to do what suits the USA.
In recent times, there have been distressing developments that corroborate the above cited shift in our overall policy towards the USA. India has gone out of the way to alienate satellite spectrum to Elon Musk’s StarLink, despite the fact that StarLink works closely with the US defence services. More recently, India has overstretched itself to accommodate the business interests of US nuclear reactor companies, under pressure from US administration, to modify the Atomic Energy Act and the civil nuclear liability law.
Decisions on India’s foreign policy vis-a-vis the USA/ Iran/ Russia and other countries will have long-term implications and they cannot be taken by the ruling party without a wider interaction with other political parties, the States and in the Parliament.
Against this background, I would caution the government not to barter away its sovereign authority to take strategic decisions under pressure either from the USA or any other country for that matter. I suggest that the government takes other political parties and the Parliament into confidence before taking decisions that seal the future of our country.
Regards,
Yours sincerely,
E A S Sarma
Former Secretary to the Government of India
Visakhapatnam
To Shri Narendra D Modi Prime Minister Dear Shri Modiji, It is reported that India, in view of US sanctions, is considering to exit Chabahar Port in Iran by asking India Ports Global Ltd (IPGL)…
countercurrents.org
